Detecting New Visual Binaries in Gaia DR3 with Gaia and Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) Photometry II. Speckle Observations of 16 Low-Separation Systems

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Main Authors: Medan, Ilija, Lépine, Sébastien, Hartman, Zachary, Stassun, Keivan G.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Medan, Ilija
Lépine, Sébastien
Hartman, Zachary
Stassun, Keivan G.
author_facet Medan, Ilija
Lépine, Sébastien
Hartman, Zachary
Stassun, Keivan G.
contents Here we present speckle observations of 16 low-separation ($s<30$ AU) high probability candidate binaries from the catalog by Medan et al., where secondaries typically lack astrometric solutions in Gaia. From these speckle observations, we find a second component is always detected within the field of view. To determine if the detection is consistent with a physical companion or a chance alignment with a background source, we utilize a statistic from Tokovinin & Kiyaeva that compares the apparent motion of the systems to the expected orbital motion ($μ^\prime$). Using simulated binary orbits, we construct likelihood distributions of $μ^\prime$ assuming various total errors on the measurements. With the hypothesis that the system is a true binary, we show that large measurement errors can result in $μ^\prime$ values higher than expected for bound systems. Using simulated chance alignments, we also create similar likelihoods to test this alternative hypothesis. By combining likelihoods of both true binaries and chance alignments, we find that 15 of the 16 candidates are physical systems regardless of the level of measurement error. Our findings also accommodate all 16 as physical systems if the average, relative measurement error on the binary separations and position angles is $\sim4.3\%$, which is consistent with our knowledge of the Gaia and Gemini speckle pipelines. Importantly, beyond assessing the likelihood of a true binary vs. chance alignment, this quantitative assessment of the true average measurement error will allow more robust error estimates of mass determinations from short separation binaries with Gaia and/or Gemini speckle data.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2404_02976
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Detecting New Visual Binaries in Gaia DR3 with Gaia and Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) Photometry II. Speckle Observations of 16 Low-Separation Systems
Medan, Ilija
Lépine, Sébastien
Hartman, Zachary
Stassun, Keivan G.
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Here we present speckle observations of 16 low-separation ($s<30$ AU) high probability candidate binaries from the catalog by Medan et al., where secondaries typically lack astrometric solutions in Gaia. From these speckle observations, we find a second component is always detected within the field of view. To determine if the detection is consistent with a physical companion or a chance alignment with a background source, we utilize a statistic from Tokovinin & Kiyaeva that compares the apparent motion of the systems to the expected orbital motion ($μ^\prime$). Using simulated binary orbits, we construct likelihood distributions of $μ^\prime$ assuming various total errors on the measurements. With the hypothesis that the system is a true binary, we show that large measurement errors can result in $μ^\prime$ values higher than expected for bound systems. Using simulated chance alignments, we also create similar likelihoods to test this alternative hypothesis. By combining likelihoods of both true binaries and chance alignments, we find that 15 of the 16 candidates are physical systems regardless of the level of measurement error. Our findings also accommodate all 16 as physical systems if the average, relative measurement error on the binary separations and position angles is $\sim4.3\%$, which is consistent with our knowledge of the Gaia and Gemini speckle pipelines. Importantly, beyond assessing the likelihood of a true binary vs. chance alignment, this quantitative assessment of the true average measurement error will allow more robust error estimates of mass determinations from short separation binaries with Gaia and/or Gemini speckle data.
title Detecting New Visual Binaries in Gaia DR3 with Gaia and Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) Photometry II. Speckle Observations of 16 Low-Separation Systems
topic Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.02976